We are happy to announce the availability of a new 3D-printed material from Model Monkey. Many products previously available only through Shapeways can now be purchased directly from Model Monkey in the new material, too.

Gray resin material characteristics compared to "fine detail" acrylic:- Much smoother surfaces. Comparable to cast resin. Because surfaces are smoother, no sanding or use of an "air eraser" is needed.- Uses no waxy supporting material during printing.- Achieves crisp and accurate fine detail.- Comes to you fully cured. Does not require any "post-curing" sunlight exposure.- Less expensive than acrylic, about 10-15%.- When you receive the products, a light wash to remove any skin oils that may be present from handling in mild dishwashing liquid in warm water is recommended, just like you would do with injection molded plastic models before painting.- Accepts both enamel or acrylic paints.

Instead of wax, physical supports which look like sprues found in injection molded plastic kits hold up the models from below during printing. Those supports will be present when customers receive the models. They can be easily cut away with a common cuticle clipper from the dollar store or broken away with a finger (they break off very easily). Nearly all attachment points are inconspicuously located on the part's bottom and within hollow models. Any "nubs" can be easily cut or sanded away.

Here is a set of Model Monkey 5"/38 cal. Mk.30 mounts printed in the new gray resin:

There are several products that have not yet been added to the new catalog but soon will be. If you would like a Model Monkey product printed in gray resin that doesn't yet appear in the new catalog, please send me a request.

At last! I've been waiting for years for this. A BIG thanks to Steve This time I'll order soon for sure.

Looks like your printer is a Formlab2, isn't it?If so I can confirm (I own one) printed parts are much much much better looking than Shapeways.

For rivet counters like me there are still very faint printing marks left, which can be quickly erased with a very light wet-sanding using those marvelousl Infini Models sponges (1 500 grit only).Be careful with the thin walls and details which remain somewhat brittle, not as much as Shapeways but more than PU resin and, of course injected plastic.Broken details can easily be repaired with CA glue.

This resin is softer than many fillers, so do some trial when using putty. Both Tamiya gray and white fillers work very fine, using wet sanding.

Acrylic, enamels, metallic (Alclad2) paint well on it without primer. Molotow markers too and these are fine for painting tiny details.

And yes, Steve, although not the same kind as Shapeways this gray resin is methacrylate, too._Bruno

Good news, got swamped with orders! It may take me a day or so longer than expected to print and ship until I get over the initial order surge. First two day's orders are shipping today.

Yes, Form2 printer. Amazing quality. Like other printers, it takes a several hours to produce a single model. But very much worth the wait. Due to print time, very large products in the existing Model Monkey-Shapeways catalog will not be offered in the new material.

Steve - it must be great to actually SEE your creations come to life in your hands, instead of seeing photos of the printed product.

_________________Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

Great question. Short answer: no, only those products whose geometry and size are suitable or whose print times are reasonable. The printer used to create models out of gray resin is best suited to printing objects like turrets and directors and other objects with similar geometry in 1/192 scale and smaller. Nameplates will not be offered in gray resin but will continue to be available in acrylic and metal through Shapeways.

Long answer:

1. Complex geometry. The printers used by Shapeways to create products in acrylic extrude a waxy material that supports overhanging features during printing. Shapeways melts the wax away in a low-temperature oven at the factory. The gray resin printer does not use any wax. Instead, this printer builds physical structural sprues during printing to support the model's overhanging features. Once the model is fully cured, these sprues are no longer needed. They must be cut away by the modeler. The gray resin printer creates products by first building a support tray that looks like a dish. The printer then builds physical sprues upward from the tray that support overhanging features during printing. Some superstructure designs, for example, have very complex shapes with lots of overhanging features. If the geometry is overly complex, too many structural supporting sprues are required to produce it. It would be covered in supports, inside and out. Their presence and their attachment point locations would spoil the appearance of the superstructure.

2. Size. Some existing designs are simply too big to fit in the printer. The model must have a footprint smaller than 14 cm x 14 cm, including the support tray, in order to fit in the printer. For example, most aircraft carrier islands in 1/350 scale will not be offered in the new material. Many designs in larger scales like 16" Iowa class turrets in 1/96 scale will not be offered in gray resin. They're just too big.

3. Reasonable print time. The printer creates a model by using a laser to harden a thin layer of liquid resin. The model is built up layer by layer. This is why 3D-printing is a very precise but excruciatingly slow process. A taller model requires more layers to complete than does a shorter model. Thus, a taller model takes longer to print; hardening more layers requires more time. Even though a design can fit in the printer and has suitable geometry, some tall models simply take too long to print.

For example, a pair of 1/72 scale PT Boat torpedo tubes have very thin walls and are quite weak and flexible until fully cured.* The material is somewhat soft during the printing process (when the process is complete, the model is hard and rigid). The tubes can sag and bulge during printing if not properly supported. Therefore they have to be oriented on end in the printer in order to be properly supported. Placing them on end eliminates sag and bulging or the need for excessive sprues. But the test print for a pair of those tubes took 15 hours to print nearly 4000 layers. Although the tubes easily fit within the printer space and have suitable geometry requiring few sprues, 15 hours is not a reasonable amount of time to commit the printer to create one model when other products (and customers) are waiting.

Hope this explanation makes sense!

* When the model is removed from the printer, it then goes into an alcohol bath to clean away any remaining liquid resin, then it goes into a UV light booth for final curing. Once fully cured, the model is strong and rigid. It is after the UV light booth treatment that the supporting sprues are no longer needed for printing purposes and can be cut away. They are left in place when shipped in order to provide added strength and rigidity during shipping.

For example, here are some photos of products to help convert your 1/350 scale USS Indianapolis CA-35 kit to sistership USS Portland CA-33.

Notice how the printer did a great job capturing the planking on the cambered Aircraft Handling deck and the steam pipe opening on the funnel.

There are a lot of support sprues but no worries, their attachment points are small and weak, just 0.6 mm in diameter, so they can be cut off easily using a common cuticle clipper. This is especially true for small, blocky parts like turrets. For the large, flat pieces like the aircraft handling deck show below, the best way to free the parts from the printing support tray is to cut the tray away from the model, not the model away from the tray. In other words, cut sprues at a point nearest the tray, not near the the model. Cut your way around the tray from the outside working your way in. Remove the tray. Then trim the remaining dangling sprues from the model. Gently sand away any remain "nubs" just like you would injection molded polystyrene.

These photos show all the products exactly as they are when they come out of the UV light booth, ready to ship. No priming or other finishing has been done on these models. This is how smooth the surfaces really are.

Good news, Lexington class and more battleship superstructure products will be added to the catalog throughout the next two weeks or so. Each design must be optimized for this kind of printing technology which does take some time to complete. First up will be the Lexington class superstructures.

Good news: 1/700 scale Lexington class products are now available in gray resin, as are Pennsylvania class battleship products. Pennsylvania and Arizona products are also available now in 1/426 scale (1/429 true scale).

Lex funnels may be printable in 1/350 scale, but not yet certain. The 1942 funnel cannot be printed with the round-ended "Chicago Piano" positions' splinter shielding attached to the rear. The shielding will have to be purchased separately.

Here are some photos of recent printings of other products. None of the products in the photos below has been finished in any way. This is how they look when printing is complete and what the customer will receive.

I am interested in many of your grey resin pieces (1/350) but before placing my order, I need to know if you plan to release a version of your 1/350 Texas/New York turrets without barrels, as I already planned to use brass ones.

thanks.

_________________Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! - David Glasgow Farragut